The main forcing is currently in 8 but we still have convection in 6. The +AAM and Pv orientation has negative effects on the response from p8.
We will be in 2/3 to start February. With some strat hits we should get into a better airmass by the 5th.
It slows the storm down and allows it to bomb out. Unfortunately, it does little for the airmass concerns. You would need a perfect ULL track/close off to allow dynamics to overcome bl issues.
The icon is making this all southern stream with no northern stream involvement. This helps in really warming temps along the coast despite a decent track.
Latest Mjo roundy plots have this going p1-p2-p3 (all cold for February) Then 4-5-6 for mid month. Depending on the amplitude in the warm phases will determine strength of southeast ridge and storm track.
Everything continues to look good the first week of February. We probably will get a cutter/cold front around the 3-4 before the cold spreads East. That timeframe between the 5th-8th continues to look conducive for something.
You want to see improvements out west with the ridge. (Not impossible 5 days out) This will allow the northern stream to dive in further south.
The ukmet was a southeast mass hit and the flow is too progressive.
We had a completely different h5 set up for Boxing Day lol. Just because it trended west does not automatically make it comparable.
The issue is the progressive nature of the flow { wave spacing and vortex} all killing the sharpness of the ridge.